Let’s Remember Our Dead and Take Action for the Living

December 6th is the National Day of Rememberance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Nellie’s Blog has a really amazing post about the history of this day and the current violence that women in Ontario face:

Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, otherwise known as December 6th, when on that date in 1989, a man murdered 14 female students at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal because they were women.

Two years ago we marked the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre. It remains important today that we continue to honour not only these 14 women who lost their lives 22 years ago, but also the number of women who continue to die at the hands of their abusers. This year in Ontario, 16 women were murdered by their intimate partners who were later charged or committed suicide (OAITH Femicide List).

Audra Petrulis from the Be The One… Campaign said it really well in her status update today:

Today is December 6th – the National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence Against Women. Today we honour the 14 women who were killed in an act of gender-based violence in 1989 at L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, known as the Montreal Massacre. A man entered the Engineering classroom with a gun, told the men to leave the room, ranted about feminists, and shot and killed the women in the room. They were killed because they were women. This was not the work of a “mad man”; this was the work of a man who was taught that he had power and priviledge over women and that he had the right to take out his rage on them. Today we honour the lives these women led and the lives they should have had.

There are two events happening today in Hamilton. Check out this post for more information.

*This post’s title is paraphrased from the words of an amazing woman, Mother Jones – “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”.